Victor could not, in fact, handle bats.

As he ran screaming and flailing, Victor tried to figure out how it had gone so terribly wrong.

As soon as he had fully stepped into the frigid corridor, the stone door had ground shut behind him, leaving him with no choice but to press forward. That was okay, and was to be expected. The dungeon didn’t typically leave the choice of retreat back through previously cleared areas, after all.

While the bats were clearly awake and aware of his presence, they had remained up on the wooden rafters, and Victor had even wondered if he might have been able to slip right past them.

At first, it seemed to work. But once he was right in the middle of the cluster, they descended all at once, biting and scratching and blasting him with shards of ice.

Not to mention their unfathomably high, ear piercing screeches.

So there he was, almost at the junction where the passageway split off to the left and right, and the only thing that had changed was the increasing number of small wounds inflicted upon him.

It turned out that it was rather difficult to stab your opponents when they were small, agile, and airborne — even if you weren’t panicking.

But while Victor might not be able to handle bats, there was someone else who could.

As Victor burst around the corner, having decided on instinct to take the left passage, his flaming, fiendish summon flitted to the side just in time to smack into an approaching foe, rebounding with a burst of steam.

The little ball of crimson fire had been protecting Victor from the moment the bats first attacked, weaving through the air with staggering agility.

Nevertheless, there were far too many of them for it to take on by itself — Victor knew he needed to change things in some way — but how?

To his alarm, he realized that his summon appeared to be weakening. The ambient illumination was dimming, and the little ball of fire was moving slower and less frequently. Cursing, Victor picked up his pace.

He hoped that it couldn’t actually die, and he would only have to invest the arcane energy to re-summon it.

The fiend collided with another bat, but this time, it was on the opposite side, with the bat between it and Victor.

The resulting burst of rapidly cooling steam propelled the vicious creature straight into Victor’s path — and with a surprising degree of dexterity, given his rapidly numbing fingers, Victor snatched it out of the air.

It turned out not to be particularly durable, and within seconds Victor had completely shredded the icy monster.

Soul Harvested

Harvested Souls: 1

Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything he could actually do with the small soul, as his only spell was the friendly fiend — which was currently not doing so great, as it was lagging behind, sputtering and dimming chaotically.

Unless…

Yanking on the soul, Victor unraveled it, slurping up the resulting raw power like a particularly long noodle. The resulting reservoir of arcane energy in his soul was far, far smaller than that which came from the human woman’s soul, which only made sense.

For all the trouble they gave, the bats were merely small, weak dungeon monsters, not a long living, thinking person.

But nevertheless, it was power, and Victor immediately attempted to pour nearly all of it into his summon.

The energy responded to his command, funneling through the invisible, intangible connection between his own spirit and that of the fiend. And it worked, because the ambient crimson lighting refracting throughout the fog suddenly increased, bathing the whole corridor in its infernal glow.

Victor grinned as the little ball of fire zipped around him with renewed vigor. In fact, it seemed even brighter and more energetic than before, practically vibrating with radiated energy.

If he could use it to kill even more…

It’s all about momentum.

As Victor dashed through a crude wooden archway, he spared a glance back — and realized that the bats had stopped following him, choosing to hang back several paces behind, circling in obvious agitation.

Victor frowned. It was nice to get a little respite, but the fact that the monsters wouldn’t go further was worrying, to say the least.

While Victor didn’t want to turn his back to the bats again, he needed to be sure that there wasn’t something even worse lurking just ahead of him.

Turning back around, Victor saw a frosty blast headed straight for his face.

Ducking just in time to avoid the spear of ice and frozen energy, Victor rolled to the side. The fog cleared, and what Victor could only make sense of as a colossal crab stepped forward, clicking its pincers menacingly.

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The colossal monster wore an even more enormous shell of thick, rough hewn ice, giving it the appearance of a living rock. It was almost like an overgrown version of the pet crabs certain merchants sometimes sold to children — the ones that used old snail shells as mobile homes.

Rising to his feet, Victor continued to back up, putting even more distance between him and the colossal crustacean, keeping the cavern wall to his right.

It turned out to be a mistake, as the monster stepped up to the archway, turned to face him, and plopped itself down — completely blocking what now appeared to be the only entrance and exit.

Fuck.

Gripping his dagger tightly, Victor stared at the crab. Where had the blast come from?

Opening its leftmost, larger pincer, the crab pointed the appendage in Victor’s direction. A swirling, pale blue vortex grew within the pincer, and Victor narrowed his eyes, preparing himself to dodge.

As the vortex brightened, the crab released it, and a spear of icy energy shot forward. Victor dodged, but just barely. Fuck. He needed to be faster.

But the monster was blocking the doorway… he needed to go on the offensive.

Glancing over to his flaming summon as the crab prepared another vortex, Victor had an idea. “Can you hit it in the eyes?”

The two glowing eyestalks looked like a good target, and the fiend bobbed up and down before zipping straight towards its target.

Victor watched anxiously as the crimson ball neared the two luminous blue stalks, while also preparing to leap to the side again if the crab released the newly building vortex.

Right as his summon was about to smack into the monster’s eyes, a pulse of luminous energy coursed through the two glowing stalks, and a bolt of icy energy arced between them and outward, striking the fiend with full force.

The summon exploded into fading crimson sparks amidst a cloud of steam. Victor cursed.

Fortunately, he wasn’t completely plunged into darkness, as the crab itself provided no small amount of illumination.

Unfortunately, it was still blocking his sole means of escape.

Clutching the dagger, Victor was about to rush forward himself when the crab pummeled the ground, creating a shockwave of frost and icy spikes. The attack radiated outward, growing like a ripple in water to take up nearly the whole ground.

With no other way to avoid it, Victor prepared to jump.

He timed it just perfectly, landing back down with just enough space to avoid being impaled on the wall of spikes.

The attack smashed against the cavern walls, dissipating into nothing more than a cloud of frost and snow. But at the same time, the monster was preparing another vortex…

Victor shivered.

This isn’t going well.

Victor took the same stance he had used to dodge before — but this time, when his opponent finally released the attack, he only just barely shifted to the side while running forward as fast as his numbing legs were able.

The spear grazed right by his ear, but Victor had no time to either be alarmed or to praise his good fortune. Avoid the eyes.

He approached closer and closer, coming within just several paces when a surge of luminosity pulsed up the two quivering stalks.

Without hesitation, Victor ducked to the side, avoiding the deadly arc completely as he smacked full body into the colossal icy shell.

His dagger glanced off of the monster’s armor.

Cursing, Victor tried again, aiming for the join, but without success. He did notice that there was softer flesh closer to where the creature emerged from the shell — but it was at least an arm’s length too far away for him to reach.

Damnit.

Victor retreated just before the crab pummeled the ground again, releasing another shockwave.

Victor timed his jump correctly again, though he stumbled slightly when he landed. He was growing tired, and just numb from the biting cold as well. And he was running out of ideas.

Licking his chapped lips, Victor exhaled sharply. A thought occurred to him — it would be risky, but he was also pretty much out of options. It wouldn’t even kill the monster, only allow him to escape and possibly plan and prepare for a later offensive.

Victor summoned the book.

Holding the heavy black tome out in front of him, Victor waited as the crab charged up yet another Vortex. Finally, the monster released its magic, but Victor didn’t dodge. Instead, he simply shifted his grip slightly, moving the book a few inches to the side.

The magical, frozen projectile shattered against the book, frost gnawing at his fingertips — but the shield held.

Ha. What better to use for defense than a completely indestructible Focus?

The crab paused, as if thinking. After several more moments, it slammed the ground, conjuring another ripple of frozen spikes.

Victor didn’t plan on jumping — though he prepared to, anyway. Instead, he merely set the book on the ground an arm’s length away from his narrowly spaced feet.

Where the wall of ice met the tome it shattered, leaving a gap that left Victor perfectly safe to remain exactly where he was. Grinning, Victor dispelled the book and then manifested it back in his hand — before waving it mockingly at the overgrown monster.

How do you like that? Two can play at this defense game, friend.

The crab was already charging another vortex — but once more, the projectile shattered against the outstretched tome. Victor laughed. He hoped the crab could get some sense of his emotions — just like he could interpret the irritated twitching of its eye stalks — because he needed it to be more impatient than he was tired.

After several more rounds of projectile defense, the crab clicked its pincers, hefted itself up, and lumbered forward. Victor tried his best not to grin. Just as planned.

Unfortunately, it took every ounce of his willpower to remain where he was instead of rushing for the now open archway. If he didn’t lure the crab far enough, then it could easily back up and seal him in once more.

Several more anxious seconds passed, and then Victor could take it no longer. Sprinting as hard as he could, Victor dashed around the monstrous crab and through the wooden archway.

He had worried that he would need to deal with the bats again, but they appeared to have left. Stumbling slightly, Victor glanced back to the cavern behind him. The crab was most of the way through turning around, and it glared at him — but it didn’t raise its pincer.

Perhaps the dungeon restricts when it can attack…

Cautiously turning his back to it, Victor staggered back towards the fork in the passageway. Peeking his head around the corner, he peered into the entryway where he had first encountered the bats.

Several pairs of tiny blue eyes peered back at him through the mist — but none of them moved.

Exhaling slowly, Victor crept past them and over to the other side.

He was cold. So cold. His tunic and trousers weren’t nearly enough to stop the chill from seeping into his bones or the frost from spreading over his skin. He needed a fire, or at the very least a blanket — just something to prevent his own body heat from uselessly bleeding off.

As he continued forward, he forced himself to remain alert — but there were no other monsters in sight. As he rounded a bend, he thought he might have seen a large shadow, but then it was gone.

Victor shrugged. It probably wasn’t important. He even doubted whether he had actually seen it — no, it was probably just his mind playing tricks on him, and there was nothing to worry about, as the passage was completely clear.

Danger forgotten, Victor continued forward — only to slip on a patch of ice.

His indignant fall was the only thing that temporarily saved him from the lithe, shadowy form pouncing on him from behind.